The
point of departure for this presentation of better railway types is
that we are discussing:

public
transport in the size range minibus through train – not
privatized small cabins

lightweight
rail – so light that it needn't raze and block off the
area of its path on the ground (and can be light because it is not
going on the ground)

preferably
beamways (suspended monorails), where the wagons are hanging under
its track (a beam), which will then not block vertical transport of
passengers from and to the ground level. (And an enclosed track may
be used.)

None
of the design mentioned here has an elevator in the train, but it
should be possible to have an elevator in the middle of a suspended
train, so that elevated station buildings (with an elevator) will not
be needed at all the stops.

Technical
comment: The track is flexible, and it is suspended in cables which
deform significantly when loaded by the weight of a train. Such a
suspension allows only a moderate train speed – only 65 km/h.
(This is explained and depicted in the description.)

The
fourth picture in above-mentioned Pictures show a cable-stayed
bridge in the background. Such a design, combined with a more
rigid track beam, should permit a far higher speed by minimizing the
track deformation during a train passage.

Wuppertaler
Schwebebahn

The
13,3 km long Wuppertal
suspension monorail was built in 1901. A so old monorail system
is of course outdated technically, but the pictures of Monometro
(next example) show what a modern version of this special design
(with the wheels upon one central rail) could look like.

The
speed could reach 60 km/h, but with 20 stations on 13.3 km, half the
speed is enough.

This
railway is clearly visible on Google
Earth: Search for Wuppertal.
One clearly visible fact is that the distance between the
rail-carrying towers is about 30-35 meters, and the Panoramio
photos show sights like the rich and varied architecture of the
stations.Video
on YouTube

This
is wherethe
elephant Tuffi jumped off the train in 1950.She was a little
girl, weighing only 700 kg, and didn't like to be in the crowd of
humans. So she broke out through a window and fell down in the river,
but got only a gash in a foot.A court concluded that this railway
was unsuitable for transporting elephants. (Articles
from German newspapers)(The planned high-speed trains seem to
have ambitions for such transport.)

The
track is not shielded from snow/ice, but is unlikely to be much used
by birds, as the vertical part of the beam is above the track
surface.

(Tech:
The beam profile is like an inverted T, where the track surface on
the beam's lower part is curved (convex upwards), so that the wheels
can get graded turns by displacing their path a little sideways.)

Airtrain

This
design
(unbuilt) has the same beam design as Monometro, but is pulled by
propellers (electrical fans) mounted on the sides of the train. This
makes the train quite wide – rather unpractical in congested
areas.

The
train is carried
in an unusual manner: The side of the train runs along one side of
the beam, a configuration allowing a dual track line to be built with
one beam. But the forces on the wheels will then become significantly
higher than the weight of the train, and rather small wheels must be
used. Speed: 70 mph, or 112 km/h.

People
Cargo Mover

A
German design (untested). This has, like Futrex, trains on both sides
of a central beam. The speed should reach 200 km/h.

The
15.2 km long Chiba
Urban Monorail is the longest suspended monorail in the world. It
can be located (at the eastern shore of the Tokyo bay) by searching
for Chibain Google
Earth, and it can there be seen that the pole separation is 25-40
meters. Japanese monorails must be built more robust than in e.g.
Europe due to the earthquake danger. The Panoramio photos clearly
show that the station architecture is monotoneous and machinelike
compared to the Wuppertal stations.

The
system is a Safege design – built with technology the japanese
bought from the French Safege
consortium.

The
Shonan Line

Shonan
Monorail is a 6.6 km long line of the same type as the one in
Chiba, i.e. from the Safege design.

It
is located by searching for Ofuna
Monorail, Kamakura, Kanagawain Google
Earth, but there are few Panoramio photos here.

SIPEM

SIPEM
- Siemens People Mover System – is manifested in two lines in
Germany:

SkyTrain
– a 2.5 km long line at Düsseldorf airport. It connects
the airport with the ordinary railway. Search for Dusseldorfin Google
Earth. The airport is in the northern part of the city, and the
SIPEM line is on the southern side of the airport. Video
on YouTube.

H-bahn
– a3.6
km long line in/at the university campus in Dortmund. Search for
Dortmundin Google
Earth, and go to the university campus in south-west. YouTube
video from a
train, from
below.

The
top speed is 65 km/h for both. They run automatically and unmanned.

Flyway

This
unrealized concept by the Swedish Swedetrack
is based on privatized cabins, and should really fall outside the
scope of this survey.

But
because the design describes wagons with up to 32 seats, and with
wagon weights reaching 7 tons (depending on the beam dimension
selected), the track beam (of the hollow Safege-type) should be well
suited for public transport (minibus through train), at least if the
train design distributes the weight along some track length. In
contrast to competing designs, Flyway doesn't demand tall station
buildings (needing elevators), but the Flyway wagons can be lowered
to the ground. This is promising, but it would be really annoying for
the passengers if the whole bus went down and up at each stop.

The
Swedetrack is quite unique for the large amount of information it
presents – both technical and transport/environment
philosophical. The organization's thinkers are here not pushed aside
by businessmen who just want to present their slick sales material –
which is too common among other companies.

The
Alternative to the suspended Beamway: The Alweg Train

It
might be of interest to compare our recommended suspended monorail
with the more common straddling type: The Alweg design. It the beam
is under the train, it will block vertical passenger movements (by
elevator), so elevated station buildings must be used.

The
satellite images can be seen with an ordinary web browser by going to
maps.google.com . But it is
better to install the program Google
Earth, because it gives access to the Panoramio photos for
places. When the program is installed and started: Go to the list
Layers(in the
lower left corner), and under Geographic
webselect
Panoramio.
Available Panoramio photos are shown as a blue spot (or a camera icon
when more strongly zoomed in). It is then only to click these marks
for interesting places. (The users who want to submit their own
photos, can do so by using the program Picasa:
On the Tools-menu,
select Geotag,
Geotag
with Google Earth.)

Google
Earth has a search field for place names in the upper left corner.